THESE RETREAT-WORKSHOPS CAN BE TAKEN INDIVIDUALLY OR AS A COMPLETE COURSE OF THREE.

These three retreat-workshops are designed to provide opportunities to walk together with others on a path that explores our own personal mortality, wherever we currently are in our lives. We can never know how or when we will die, but many who work with the dying share the view that it can potentially be a time of healing and spiritual transformation. With this possibility in mind, we will practice together, in times of silence and sharing, continuing the journey towards our death, which we started at birth. If we choose to enter the threshold of our own death now, our heart practices and enquiry in this territory may enable us to accompany others with ‘emptier’ hearts, so that more love shines through. And perhaps we ourselves can transition with less fear when it is our own time to die.

One key intention is to familiarise ourselves with our intrinsically open and loving awareness, which, if we can ‘drop’ into more often, can support us in living our lives more fully and with a deeper sense of meaning. There is so much that is unknown to us about our own death, but we can cultivate the capacity to enter and rest in this open state of presence that co-arises with our moment-to-moment everyday experience. And in addition, learning to bring kindness to our current feelings, thoughts and unspoken half-conscious intuitions concerning our own death can enable us to feel and ‘know’ the reality of our own death more intimately. At a subtle level such knowing can help shape our own death awareness, with the possibility of it becoming an inner ‘staff’ to support us as we go forward in our lives.

During each of these retreat-workshops we will have the opportunity to tend to ourselves and each other with compassion and to listen to what arises and speaks to us in this context. Through this process it is hoped that we may more easily discern what we need to go forward with less resistance and a greater sense of freedom at the heart of our experience. A particular focus will be: what does ‘surrendering in love’ mean to me, and how can I practice this so that when my death comes, I have this experience to draw on?

Each 5-day stands alone, and it is also possible, since they are interconnected, to take all three as a complete course.

Format: retreat-workshop

The structure of each 5-days is intended to provide a safe, warm and inclusive context for contemplative practice. A central practice will be to co-create a relational holding field of heart to sustain us through our individual and shared journeying.

Silence will be a thread running throughout, and the focus is on personal practice. Each day will begin and end with meditation, and there will be ‘blessed silence’ from 8.00pm to 8.00am.

Also included will be experiential elements that involve practising in small and larger groups; shared reflection on given themes; and opportunities to draw on creativity, visualisation, and ritual to explore our feelings, experiences and understandings of death.

We have the privilege and gift to be located at Karuna Dartmoor, immersed in the changing seasons and wild beauty of Dartmoor.

THE RETREATS

Being on Thresholds of the Unknown: November 25-29, 2026

Let this darkness be a bell tower
And you the bell… (Rilke: Sonnets to Orpheus)

In this retreat-workshop we will have the opportunity to enter the threshold of our own fragility and mortality, while orienting to the mystery and potency of love both consciously experienced in our lives and hidden. Through letting ourselves be the dark ‘cloud of unknowing’ that is intrinsic to who we are, we will have the chance to pause and feel into this dark space, and what drives us, and how it is to loosen our identification with that energy.

We shall spend time tending to ourselves with heart as we listen to what arises and speaks to us within the natural environment of Dartmoor. Working with sound, symbolism and wordcraft we will explore our experience of the implicate realm together, where life and death can sometimes seem less separate, less ‘either-or’; and where love (bodhicitta) can sometimes surprisingly arise as a felt experience without cause.

Dreaming my Dying: May 26-30, 2027

In this uncontainable night,
Be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses,
The meaning discovered there… (Rilke: Sonnets to Orpheus)

In this retreat-workshop we will briefly explore the dying process, especially drawing on Tibetan Buddhist understandings of the dissolution of the elements as these are seen to constitute our embodied sensory experience. A central practice related to this exploration will be opening to our inherent natural state of loving presence, which we could say is our birth and deathright.

Using guided visualization and creative practices we will find our own language for our dying process, drawing on our personal spiritual worldviews and practices.

Experiential enquiry involving the natural elements will support us, and ritual will be a vehicle for honoring and grounding our practice.

Moments of Recognition in Life and Death: November 3-7, 2027

And if the world has ceased to hear you,
Say to the silent Earth: I flow.
To the rushing water, speak: I am.... (Rilke: Sonnets to Orpheus)

This retreat-workshop will provide opportunities to share our collective wisdom gathered in our lives so far concerning our relationship with our own death. How do I feel now about my own mortality and how am I called to integrate my death into my life going forward? 

We will also look at ‘the little deaths’ we personally have in our lives, and opportunities we have in our current life situations to let go into our inherent natural state of loving presence. There will be a focus in these 5 days on integration at different levels, including reflecting on what is important in my life, and what I would like to nourish and support me when I die. Experiential practices will help us gain clarity about this and, hopefully, encourage us to bring open-hearted presence and responsiveness more fully into our relationships, our work with others, and our divided world. 

OTHER INFORMATION

Who is eligible?

These retreat-workshops are designed both for those who are involved professionally or personally in caring for those at the end of life, and for those who feel drawn to this personal work now, for whatever reason. While many of us are familiar with co-creating circles of compassionate care around others, many of us are not so accustomed to wrapping such deep-hearted intentionality and care around our own personal questionings and questings.

Participants are expected to be familiar with sitting in shared silence and working in groups, and to have a meditation/spiritual practice.

Please note: it is recommended that if you have experienced a recent death or loss (within two years) or feel you are currently carrying significant trauma that relates to death, you consider giving yourself more time and delay joining. If you have any queries about this, please email Anne via sarana@posteo.com